用法学习: 1. icicle [ˈaɪsɪk(ə)l] 冰柱 a long thin piece of ice that hangs down from somewhere. 被起诉: The 32-year-old and 29-year-old men have also been charged with the shooting murder of convicted standover man( standover n. the height above ground of the top horizontal tube of the frame of a bicycle; should be less than the height above ground of the rider's groin. adj using intimidation or threat of force to coerce others into submission or compliance. e.g. "standover tactics" or "standover man". stand over somebody to watch someone closely Don't stand over me all the time - it makes me nervous. Had someone been standing over her while she slept or did she just imagine it?) Joe Antoun at his Strathfield home last December. 2. 出走小女孩找到: "It's extremely pleasing to see. When someone of a young age is missing, it's not only a concern of the police, but the community," he said. "A fantastic effort all round by everybody." Police will continue to establish the grounds and reasons why the girl left her home and where she has been over the past two days. 3. 澳三名士兵阿富汗被枪杀: Secret orders circulated by the headquarters of the US-led military coalition in Afghanistan were not passed on to Australian soldiers before three diggers were killed in an insider attack in August 2012. The orders warned of the heightened threat of green-on-blue attacks( attacks on NATO forces by members of the Afghan security forces. The spike in the "green on blue" attacks has prompted Nato to boost security measures while working together with their Afghan counterparts. The measures include assigning "guardian angels" – soldiers who watch over their comrades as they sleep. The phrase green on blue has been used with tragic frequency in recent weeks to describe attacks by Afghan soldiers on Coalition troops in Afghanistan. Green on blue is modeled after an earlier phrase, blue on blue, referring to inadvertent clashes between members of the same side in an armed conflict (also known as fratricide, or by the oxymoronic synonym friendly fire). Blue on blue originated in the British military in the early 1980s, but has now spread around the world, and even moved beyond the military sphere to describe accidental shootings among police officers. What are the blue and green referred to in these phrases? It doesn't have anything to do with uniforms. The formulation is based on the standardized military symbols used to indicate different forces on maps. In this system, the color blue is used for friendly forces友军, red for hostile forces, green for neutral forces, and yellow for unknown forces. Thus, blue-on-blue shootings are incidents in which members of the same force fire on one another. What green on blue means is a bit more complicated. In addition to Afghanistan, green on blue has also been used in the context of Iraq; US General Raymond Odierno referred to the threat of "green-on-blue attacks" by Iraqi security forces on US personnel in Iraq in 2009 (Politico, 28 May). It would seem that in the context of the Iraq and Afghanistan, the local security forces are regarded as neutral, or green: not hostile, but not fully allies, either.), and gave orders for "immediate force protection enhancement". The intelligence that was known further up the chain of command just didn't make it down there. And I think had it got down, they would've taken their security far more seriously than they did. For the families, the job of investigating what occurred, and why, was made much harder by the blackouts imposed on some evidence by Defence. One of the documents which the Army refused to disclose is a fragmentary order(An Operations Order行动令, 作战令, often abbreviated as OPORD, is an executable plan that directs a unit on how to conduct a military operation. An Operations Order will describe the situation facing the unit, the mission of the unit, and what activities the unit will conduct to achieve the mission goals. Once an OPORD is given, the situation may change before the mission is actually begun or, during the operation the situation may change so that the Operations Order must be modified. In these cases the commander will issue a Fragmentary Order, or FRAGO. The FRAGO will state exactly how the situation and/or, mission has been changed and what must be done to make up for the change.) – or FRAGO – written by senior commanders. Its contents were only discussed in detail behind closed doors. 4. The palate [ˈpælit]([ˈpælət] I. medical the inside upper part of your mouth. The front, harder part is your hard palate, and the back, softer part is your soft palate. II. the ability to taste and judge the flavors in food and drinks. cleft palate a medical condition in which there is a narrow space inside someone's mouth at the top, so that it is difficult for them to speak clearly. palatable [ˈpælətəb(ə)l] I. 可口的. tasting good enough to eat or drink. II. acceptable.) is the roof of the mouth in humans and other mammals. It separates the oral cavity from the nasal cavity. A similar structure is found in crocodilians, but, in most other tetrapods, the oral and nasal cavities are not truly separate. The palate is divided into two parts, the anterior bony hard palate, and the posterior fleshy soft palate (or velum). placate [ˈpleɪkeɪt; pləˈkeɪt] to stop someone from feeling angry or offended by being nice to them or by giving them what they want. Efforts to placate local government officials have thus far failed. 5. We have a superior relationship to you guys. quantifiable 可量化的 [ˈkwɑntəˌfaɪəb(ə)l] (What price freedom?) capable of being measured or described as a quantity. do a number on someone or something Sl. to damage or harm someone or something. to treat someone very badly or unfairly I'm not surprised Caroline doesn't like him. He really did a number on her at work. The teacher did a number on the whole class by giving them a pop quiz. Tom did a number on Mary when he went out with Ann. take one for the team 为集体做贡献, 为大家牺牲, 牺牲小我全大我 (idiomatic, informal) To accept some chore or hardship for the sake of one's friends or colleagues. Etymology: By analogy with sports teams when a player makes a sacrifice for the benefit of the team. take it like a man (idiomatic) To respond to pain, hardship, adversity, or emotional distress in a collected, aggressive, and typical or stereotypical masculine manner, especially without question, crying, complaining, or becoming emotional. There was no moping around 哀叹, 唉声叹气 the house with a depressed disposition情绪 when one of my romances turned sour because, as far as my love life went, father expected me to take it like a man. 7. I thank you for opening my eyes to the truth让我看到真相. disharmony [dɪsˈhɑrməni] 不和谐 a situation in which people are angry and arguing with each other. uncouth [ʌnˈku:θ] 没礼貌的, 没有教养的, 粗鲁的 behaving in a way that polite people consider rude or offensive. Talking with your mouth full is uncouth. out of the woods 度过关键期 Fig. past a critical phase; out of the unknown. When the patient got out of the woods, everyone relaxed. I can give you a better prediction for your future health when you are out of the woods. in the clear 解脱了 I. not guilty of a crime The government investigated charges against the company and decided it was in the clear. II. not experiencing something bad. to have no problems after being in a difficult situation: The X-rays showed that she's in the clear. Just when I thought I was in the clear, I came down with the flu. Taylor Swift: Are we out of the woods yet? Are we out of the woods? (I remember) Are we in the clear yet? 9. sacred [ˈseɪkrɪd] 神圣的 I. connected with religion. sacred art. II. considered to be holy or connected with God in a special way. Jerusalem is sacred to Christians, Muslims, and Jews. sacred ground. III. 神圣不可侵犯的. so important that you should not change, question, or criticize it. He has violated one of the profession's most sacred rules. We make jokes about everything – nothing is sacred. tread on sacred/dangerous ground to do something that is likely to cause a problem or upset some people. If you criticize his mother you're treading on dangerous ground. sacred site 圣地 in Australia, a place that has religious or historical importance for Aboriginal people. sacred cow something that many people think is too important to change, question, or criticize. Evil will never leave the house of one who pays back(repay) evil for good以善报恶. If anyone returns evil for good以恶报善, evil will not depart from his house. divine I. like a god, or relating to a god. The calm on their faces seemed almost divine. divinely inspired music. the many divine beings in the Hindu tradition. a. done, sent, or provided by a god. divine intervention/inspiration/justice. II. informal old-fashioned extremely good or pleasant. divine right I. 天赋神权. in the past, the idea that a king or queen ruled because of a right given by God so that they could not be opposed or removed from power. II. a right that you think you have that allows you to do what you want, even if it harms or upsets other people. They seem to think they have a divine right to stage the next Olympics.
香港占中: Hong Kong protesters to hold a straw poll on government offer as pro-democracy campaign enters fifth week. Divisions 分歧, 分裂 ( There is an important breakthrough in HIV prevention. It's a pill called PrEP (short for pre-exposure prophylaxis) and it's causing bitter divides 分立, 分歧(be split over sth有分歧意见) in the gay and health communities. ) have emerged in the Hong Kong pro-democracy movement as its leaders suspend a planned vote. A straw poll or straw vote is a vote with nonbinding results. Straw polls provide dialogue among movements within large groups. In meetings subject to rules of order, impromptu straw polls often are taken to see if there is enough support for an idea to devote more meeting time to it, and (when not a secret ballot不记名投票) for the attendees to see who is on which side of a question. However, Robert's Rules of Order prohibits straw polls, calling them "meaningless and dilatory" because they subvert ( subvert [səbˈvɜ:(r)t] I. to attack or harm a government or established system of law, politics etc. II. to make someone less loyal or less moral. ) the deliberative charge of deliberative bodies. Among political bodies, straw polls often are scheduled for events at which many people interested in the polling question can be expected to vote. Sometimes polls conducted without ordinary voting controls in place (i.e., on an honor system, such as in online polls) are also called "straw polls". The idiom may allude to a straw (thin plant stalk) held up to see in what direction the wind blows, in this case, the wind of group opinion.
Taylor Swift tells Ellen her greatest fear — and it's a weird one: POP star and American sweetheart Taylor Swift has revealed her deepest, darkest fear( murky I. dark and difficult to see through, especially because of bad light, thick cloud, or dirt in the air or water. I couldn't make out the house number in the murky light. murky water. II. 灰暗的. involving activities that are not clearly known and that people think are dishonest or morally wrong. We suspected he had a murky past. ) — and it's a weird one. The country-pop superstar tells all in a new interview with Ellen DeGeneres, revealing that her biggest fear in the world is sea urchins(Sea urchins 海胆 or urchins ([ˈərtʃɪnz]), archaically called sea hedgehogs, are small, spiny, globular animals that, with their close kin, such as sand dollars, constitute the class Echinoidea of the echinoderm phylum. Common colors include black and dull shades of green, olive, brown, purple, blue, and red. Sea urchins move slowly, and feed on mostly algae. Sea otters, starfish, wolf eels, triggerfish, and other predators hunt and feed on sea urchins. Their roe is a delicacy in many cuisines. The name "urchin" is an old name for the round spiny hedgehogs, which sea urchins resemble.). "The poor things are just minding their own business干自己的事, 没有招谁惹谁 ..." vegan animal lover Ellen told her guest. "No they're not! They're like a GRENADE," Swift countered反驳到. "They're just sitting there waiting to completely injure you ... You can't see if a sea urchin's right there, and then you step on one. It has barbs钩子 and it goes into whatever it touches. You have to go to the emergency room and have it surgically removed手术摘除. "You could lose your foot, you could lose your hand, you could lose your hand trying to get it off of your foot. I DON'T LIKE sea urchins." We sensed that, Swifty. Possibly the only thing Taylor Swift hates more than John Mayer. Ellen offered her guests some facts on the unassuming ( 谦逊有礼的. 不装的. behaving in a quiet and pleasant way, without trying to appear better or more important than other people. not pretentious or arrogant; modest. ) sea creatures to try and allay her deep-seated 根深蒂固的 psychological terror: "They can puncture and injure, causing swelling and redness. That's not what you described. You just described losing your hand and your foot," the talk show host informed. "You could lose your hand and foot from swelling and redness," Swift argued (we feel we should probably point out that Taylor Swift is not a qualified medical professional). Taylor Swift is terrified of sea urchins. Just shake it off, Taylor. If a hysterical fear of death by sea urchin wasn't enough, Taylor also shared her second-greatest fear with Ellen: being framed for murder. "I'm scared off getting framed. They [no, we're not sure who 'they' are either] could frame you for any crime you could go to jail for. Look at me, I wouldn't survive in jail. "I think it comes from — I could open up my phone at any time and see the most ridiculously untrue thing written about me. I could do nothing wrong, I could sit in my house with the cats all day, and there could still be an article about me buying a house in a place I've never been or dating a guy I've never met. Then you take it a step further, and in a nightmare world, it's being framed for murder." We're not conspiracy theorists, but this seems like the sort of thing you'd say in public to give yourself an alibi if you plan on murdering someone. Tay-Tay, we're watching you.
防艾滋病药物: With HIV infections in Australia at a 20-year high, there's a push to subsidise a daily pill that can stop transmission, but health professionals and the gay community are split over the drug, which some say will encourage risky sexual behaviour and could place a huge burden on the public health purse. Hagar Cohen investigates. The study in NSW is about to enrol 300 participants, who will be excepted to take PrEP daily for a year. In Melbourne, the Prahran Market Clinic started receiving patients three months ago. It took only two weeks for their year-long study to fill up招满. The clinic's Dr Vincent Cornelisse says they had anticipated it would take a year. 'With the introduction of the trial came a lot of publicity to get the conversation started, and that resulted in a lot of people presenting to the clinic purely for accessing PrEP.' '[My sex life] went through a spike where it was multiple people, and a little bit out of control to be honest.' 'I can't give you the exact statistic, but it was quite a huge amount. Probably 10 in some weeks, and you move on from one to the next.' PrEP, however, is expensive. Studies in Melbourne, Sydney and Queensland will help determine if it's cost effective and whether it will be subsidised by the government. 'I'd love to be able to take it long term,' says George. 'It depends on what government finances it comes with. It's a very expensive medication. Access to the medication is what the trial is all about.' The pill isn't without its side effects, however—it's associated with toxicities, and it's not yet known what its full impact on the body is. Some of the participants in the study have also reported being stigmatised as promiscuous. Dr Cornelisse says one of his patients told him he was alienated from his social group when they found out he was taking PrEP: 'It's the worst stigma you can face if your own social group outcasts you as a result of taking PrEP.' 'I characterise it as a party drug, because I believe that people will take it on a Friday night to have a good time on the weekend,' he says. 'I think we're already seeing that.' 'It facilitates doing whatever you please. The whole idea behind a party is that you let your hair down, and you throw care to the wind, and you have a good time.' It's not a straightforward issue, though, and some people who are not necessarily complacent ( too confident and relaxed because you think you can deal with something easily, even though this may not be true. These results are good, but we cannot afford to be complacent.) about HIV risks are still not wearing condoms. 'Most of our research tries to promote an understanding of HIV in the cold light of day(in the cold light of day if you think about something in the cold light of day, you think about it clearly and calmly, without the emotions you had at the time it happened, and you often feel sorry or ashamed about it. The next morning, in the cold light of day, Sarah realized what a complete idiot she had been. ), but never when people are having sex.'
古代武器: 1. trident 三叉戟 [ˈtraɪdənt] a weapon made of three sharp points on a long pole, used in the past. A trident is a three-pronged spear.
It is used for spear fishing and historically as a polearm. The trident
is the weapon of Poseidon, or Neptune, the god of the sea in classical
mythology. In Hindu mythology it is the weapon of Shiva, known as
trishula (Sanskrit for "triple-spear"). 2. A bayonet [ˈbeɪənɪt] 刺刀 (from French baïonnette) is a knife, sword, or spike-shaped weapon designed to fit in, on, over or underneath the muzzle 枪杆, 枪筒 of a rifle, musket or similar weapon, turning the gun into a spear. In this regard, it is an ancillary close-quarter combat 近身搏击, 近距离搏击 or last-resort weapon. However, knife-shaped bayonets—when not fixed to a gun barrel—have long been utilized by soldiers in the field as general purpose cutting implements. 3. A pike长柄枪(也是梭子鱼, spike是仙人掌cactus的刺, 鞋钉是stud) is a pole weapon, a very long thrusting spear formerly used extensively by infantry. Unlike many similar weapons, the pike is not intended to be thrown. The pike found extensive use with Landsknecht armies and Swiss mercenaries, who employed it as their main weapon and used it in pike square formations长柄枪方阵. It had a wooden shaft with an iron or steel spearhead affixed. The shaft near the head was often reinforced with metal strips called "cheeks" or langets. When the troops of opposing armies both carried the pike, it often grew in a sort of arms race武器角力, 军备竞赛(I. competition between countries to increase the number or power of their weapons of war. II. attempts by different groups of people to gain an advantage over one another, especially in developing technology. the technological arms race between network engineers and the hackers who challenge them. An arms race, in its original usage, is a competition between two or more parties to have the best armed forces. Each party competes to produce larger numbers of weapons, greater armies, or superior military technology in a technological escalation. International conflict specialist Theresa Clair Smith, defines the term as "the participation of two or more nation-states in apparently competitive or interactive increases in quantity or quality of war material and/or persons under arms." Nowadays the term is mostly used to describe any competition where there is no absolute goal, only the relative goal of staying ahead of the other competitors, essentially the goal of proving to be "better". ), getting longer in both shaft and head length to give one side's pikemen an edge in the combat. The extreme length of such weapons required a strong wood such as well-seasoned ash for the pole, which was tapered towards the point to prevent the pike from sagging on the ends, although this was always a problem in pike handling. It is a common mistake to refer to a bladed有刃的, 刀刃(blade I. the
thin sharp part of a knife, tool, or weapon that cuts things. II.冰刀.
the metal bar on the bottom of an ice skate that allows you to move on
ice. III. 涡轮. one of the flat parts of a propeller that spins around and
pushes a boat or plane forwards. ) polearm as a pike. Such weapons are more generally halberds, glaives or voulges. The great length of the pikes allowed a great concentration of spearheads to be presented to the enemy, with their wielders挥舞者 at a greater distance, but also made pikes unwieldy难以挥动的, 难以舞动的, 尾大不掉的 in close combat. This meant that pikemen had to be equipped with a shorter weapon such as a sword, mace, or dagger in order to defend themselves should the fighting degenerate into a melee 混战 ( [ˈmeleɪ] I. a noisy confused fight involving a lot of people. II. a large confused group of people or things.). In general, however, pikemen attempted to avoid such disorganized combat, at which they were at a disadvantage. To compound their difficulties in a melee, the pikeman often did not have a shield or had only a small shield of limited use用处有限, 用途有限, 没多大用处 in close-quarters fighting近距离搏斗. 4. A spear长矛 is a pole weapon consisting of a shaft, usually of wood, with a pointed head. The head may be simply the sharpened end of the shaft itself, as is the case with bamboo spears, or it may be made of a more durable material fastened to the shaft, such as flint, obsidian, iron, steel or bronze. The most common design for hunting or combat spears since ancient times has incorporated a metal spearhead shaped like a triangle, lozenge or leaf. The heads of fishing spears usually feature barbs or serrated edges.
Spears can be divided into two broad categories: those designed for
thrusting in melee combat and those designed for throwing (usually
referred to as javelins). The spear has been used throughout human history both as a hunting and fishing tool and as a weapon. As a weapon, it may be wielded with either one hand or two. It was used in virtually every conflict up until the modern era and was most likely the most commonly used weapon. 5. The "winged hammer斧头 and sickle镰刀(半圆形的刀刃, 手柄很短, scythe是grim reaper拿的手柄很长的, 刀刃微弯的那种)" on an Aeroflot uniform. A sickle is a hand-held agricultural tool with a variously curved blade typically used for harvesting grain crops or cutting succulent forage chiefly for feeding livestock (either freshly cut or dried as hay). The diversity of sickles that have been used around the globe is staggering 让人惊愕的, 愕然的, 目瞪口呆的(Causing great astonishment, amazement, or dismay; overwhelming. tending to stagger or overwhelm: a staggering amount of money. a staggering achievement; a staggering defeat.). Between the dawn of the Iron Age and present, hundreds of region-specific variants of this basic forage-cutting tool were forged of iron, later steel. Within the industrial set-up, when the trip hammer ( A trip hammer 机械大锤,
also known as a helve hammer, is a massive powered hammer. Trip hammers
were usually raised by a cam and then released to fall under the force
of gravity. Historically, trip hammers were often powered by a water
wheel, and are known to have been used in China as long ago as 20 AD.)
took over from men swinging their strong arms at the anvil (between 16th and 17th century) some models of sickles were produced in up to six different sizes. 6. The concept of Death as a sentient entity has existed in many societies since the beginning of recorded history. In English, Death is often given the name "the Grim Reaper死神, 死神判官" and, from the 15th century onwards, came to be shown as a skeletal figure carrying a large scythe and clothed in a black cloak with a hood. In some cases, the Grim Reaper can actually cause the victim's death, leading to tales that he can be bribed, tricked, or outwitted 智胜 in order to retain one's life, such as in the case of Sisyphus. Other beliefs hold that the Spectre of Death is only a psychopomp, serving to sever the last ties between the soul and the body and to guide the deceased to the next world without having any control over the fact of the victim's death. In many languages (including English), Death is personified in male form, while in others, it is perceived as a female character (for instance, in Slavic and Romance languages). 7. A scythe ([ˈsaɪð] or [ˈsaɪθ]) 大镰刀, 长柄镰刀 is an agricultural hand tool for mowing grass or reaping crops. It was largely replaced by horse-drawn and then tractor machinery, but is still used in some areas of Europe and Asia. The Grim Reaper and the Greek Titan Cronus are often depicted carrying or wielding a scythe.
